:123
FEDERAL REPORTER.
GILBERT
v.
WEIR PLOW
CO.
(Circuit Oourt, N. D. Illinois. November 24,1884.) PA';l'ENTS FOR INVENTIONS-ANTICIPATION.
Where the devices used were all anticipated by devices used In older Inven tions, the mere circumstance of a different method of producing the same reo suit in a combination will not entitle a. cla.imant to the exclusive right to the use of such combination.
,
(1) "The combination of the angnlar lever, A, ratchet, C, and spring, n, with the pitman, D, and sliding axle-tree arm, E, in the manner described .and for the purposes set forth." , The defenses are (1) that defendant does not infringe; (2) that
In Equity. Geo. W. Dyer, for complainant. West cf: Bond, for defendant. BLODGETT, J. This is a suit to restrain the infringement of patent No. 88,413, issued as of March 23, 1869, to John G. Robinson, 'for an "improvement in gang and trench plows," and for an accounting for profits and damages. This patent covers several devices, but the only one in controversy in this suit is what the patentee describes "as a device for adjusting the depth of the furrows." It consists of a movable arm. or wheel·journal for the right hand, or furrow-wheel, with an angular lever so connected with this movable arm that this wheel-arm can be raised above or lowered below the end of the axle. The wheel-arm or journal is fastened horizontally to a grooved ver· tical plate, which is arranged to move on a plate fixed vertically to the end of the axle, and anangnlar lever fulcrumed on the axle is connected by a pitman with the grooved plate which carries the wheel, 80 that· the axle may be raised or lowered by the movement of this lever in the notches of a ratcheted bar with which it is held in engagement by a spring. Thie feature of the patent iB covered by the first claim, which is:
the patent is void for want of novelty. The proof in this case shows that wheel-arms,'which could be moved upon' the end of the axle of a wheeled cultivator or plow so as to bring the axle, or One end of it, above or below the center of the wheel, are old, and were well known long prior to the issue of this patent. In fact, it is only the axle inside the hub of the wheel which moves up or down in the complainant's device, or any of the devices shown in the proof, as the wheel always rests upon the ground, and the axle is the part of 'the device which changes its position. We find in the patent of Joseph Vowles, for a cultivator, issued in February, 1860, a wheel-spindle, vertically movable on the end of the axle, the slides, or plates, to which the spindle or wheel-arms were fixed, having a rack, and levers being arranged with teeth to engage with the teeth or cogs of the rack, so as to move the wheel-arm up or down with these levers.
GJLBEBT V. WElBPLOW 00.
Robinson, the patentee of complainant's device, alsoobtailled,iqDecember, 1860, It patent for an "improvement in plows," whe.r;ein he to raise showed a wheel-arm arranged to be moved up or down so or lower the plows; but he showed no levers for this operation, the movable plate carrying the wheel-arm being held in placebYP,iIls, which were taken out to make the adjustment, and then rElplaced in other holes, as provided. In May, 1861, another patent was issued to Vowles for an "improvement in cultivators," showing the same device for a movable wheel-arm that was shown in his patent; of. :Feb· ruary, 1860. In the patent of Edwin J. Fraser, issued April 28, 18tH, for an "improvement in plows," a movable wheel-arm is shown, by which the axle is raised and lowered so as to adjust the axle horizontally when one wheel is running in the furrow. This is made by means of a lever with an eccentric or sector fllicrumed was on the top of the vertical guide or socket in which the moved. In the patent granted to J. L. & W. L. Black,)?ecj:lmbe,r 19, 1865, a movablo wheel-arm is shown, actuated; that ,is"tD,ovedpp or down by means of a chain fixed to the slide., which carried, the movable wheel-arm which is worked by a bent nected with the chain. So, too, the patent issued to A. IIammqpq, issued March 27, 1866, shows a whe.el-arm movable up and doWp.,by means of a screw engaging in a toothed raoJi on the platEl. to.which the movable arm is fixed. , ' , ',' It therefore, clearly appears that devices for adjusting one or both ends of the axle in relation to the centero£ applied to ·cultivators and plowBwas old before, the patent now the court was grauted, amI that in all the prior the same mode of securing the movability of the axle was that is, the wheel-arm was made fast to a vertical plate, whicp jseitpe,r grooved so as to slide on a vertical plate fixed to the end tlle axle,· or the plate fixed to the end of the axle is grooved, and the ,plate; fixed to the end of the arms slides in such groovef.\. We also tPat in the VowlEls patents of 1860 and 1861 the ,wheel-arm is means of a lever having a toothed segment at the with the teeth or cogs of a rack attached to the plate whic4 carries .the wheel-arm; this segmental lever being fulcrumed on a pip 80:.as to move. the plate up or down without the aid of a connecting Hn¥orpit. man. In the Fraser patent of 1861 a sector is applied the patElnt of: Black of to raise or lower this movable wheel-arm. December, 1865, a bent or angular lever. is shown attached; toa connected with the sliding-plate fixed to the wheel-arm; .alflo shows an arohed or segment-shaped notched bar so engage with or hold the lever in any place within its range;: in QtpElr words, a ratchet bar. . .... Here we have in these older devices, as it seems tome, .the ments of the first claim of this Robinson patent. ents show levers with segments or eccentrics,. and the teeth,ol'\ .Qqss
or